82 "And why can't Trills be transported?" ("The Host" [TNG]) (Transporters - Star Trek)
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This article is from the Star Trek Tech FAQ, by Joshua Bell inexorabletash@hotmail.com with numerous contributions by others.
82 "And why can't Trills be transported?" ("The Host" [TNG]) (Transporters - Star Trek)
Odan said that transport would kill him. However, in "The Alternate"
[DS9], Dax is transported by a Federation transporter (aboard the
Runabout), and suffers no ill effects. Since then she's been
transported many times. There are a few possibilities.
The first is that Odan did not wish to reveal that he was a
host/symbiont pair, perhaps because the knowledge would disrupt the
negotiations, lead to suspicion, or because all Trill were keeping
their symbiont nature a secret at the time.
The second is that, not knowing that Trill are a joined species, the
Biofilter might identify the slug part as a parasite and delete the
pattern, killing both the host and the symbiont. If this is true, then
simply by turning off/adjusting the Biofilter, Trills can transport
like anyone else. Surely, once the unique nature of the Trill was
revealed, the all Federation Biofilters would be reprogrammed to
ignore the symbiont.
The third is that some Trill symbionts would be damaged by the
transport process, and others wouldn't be. This is proposed in the
Encyclopedia. Another possibility is that the link in an injured Trill
(host or symbiont) is susceptible to damage during transport.
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